"Don't be silly, Dawlish. I'm sure you are an excellent Auror — I seem to remember that you achieved 'Outstanding' in all your NEWTs — but if you attempt to — er — bring me in by force, I will have to hurt you."

Sometime after his seventeenth birthday, Dawlish joined the Ministry of Magic, and completed a stringent series of character and aptitude tests in the three years that followed to join the Auror Office.[6]

HeadmasterAlbus Dumbledore took the blame instead, with a false confession. After Fudge accused him of treason and sedition against himself and the Ministry of Magic, Fudge made a
small choking noise, and then looked round at Kingsley and Dawlish. Dawlish nodded reassuringly and moved forwards, his hand drifting towards the wand in his pocket. Dumbledore said he had to hurt him if Dawlish attacked him, and the Auror blinked rather foolishly, without a clue as to what to do next. Fudge ordered the Aurors to seize Dumbledore, but the Headmaster easily defeated the Ministry officials, leaving Fudge, Umbridge, Kingsley and Dawlish unconscious on the floor as he escaped. Dawlish was the first to come to, stirring on the floor. When the wizards noted Dumbledore's absence, Dawlish fruitlessly tried to intercept him wrenching the door to the office open and disappearing down the stairs, followed closely by Kingsley and Umbridge.[5]

In the early minutes of 17 June, just after midnight, Dawlish was among the number of Ministry officials who, led by Umbridge, attacked Rubeus Hagrid in order to arrest him and sack him from his positions of Gamekeeper and Professor. While trying to Stun him, Dawlish pleaded Hagrid to "be reasonable". It is unclear whether Dawlish was one of the Aurors physically knocked-out by Hagrid, or the one who, like Umbridge, was left unharmed, but tripped over one of his unconscious colleagues and fell over.[7]

Under Minister Rufus Scrimgeour

Harry Potter: "Scrimgeour wanted to know where you go when you're not at Hogwarts."

Albus Dumbledore: "Yes, he is very nosy about that. He has even attempted to have me followed. Amusing, really. He set Dawlish to tail me. It wasn't kind. I have already been forced to jinx Dawlish once; I did it again with the greatest regret."

Under Minister Pius Thicknesse

Neville Longbottom: "But we were still fighting, doing underground stuff, right up until a couple of weeks ago. That's when they decided there was only one way to stop me, I suppose, and they went for Gran."

Harry Potter, Ronald Weasley and Hermione Granger: "They what?"

Neville Longbottom: "Yeah. Well, you can see their thinking. It had worked really well, kidnapping kids to force their relatives to behave. I s'pose it was only a matter of time before they did it the other way around. Thing was, they bit off a bit more than they could chew with Gran. Little old witch living alone, they probably thought hey didn't need to send anyone particularly powerful. Anyway, Dawlish is still in St. Mungo's and Gran's on the run."

Later life

What happened to Dawlish after that is unknown; it is possible that Kingsley Shacklebolt, as the new Minister for Magic, had him arrested for complying with the Death Eaters' rule and for crimes against Muggle-borns, a crime that Umbridge was found guilty and was arrested for.

Personality and traits

John Dawlish was a highly intelligent and magically talented wizard who apparently was slavishly devoted to his job and seemed to take his work as an Auror very seriously. Although he had an easy exploitable weakness, (mainly the Confundus Charm), he generally seemed to be a strong-willed man, as he completed a extremely stringent series of character and aptitude tests in order to join the Auror Office.

He also seems to be unpredictable. At one point, he appeared to prefer to talk his way through difficult situation before using force, as he tried to reason with Rubeus Hagrid to come quietly instead of resisting when they came to remove him from the school grounds. However, it is uncertain wether he tried to attack him prior to ask him to "be reasonable" or if he tried to stun him right away. However, he had no problem with attacking Professor McGonagall when she came to help Hagrid, suggesting that he was one of the four Aurors sending off stunning spells in her direction, possibly because he at the time veiwed her as a potential threat to the superior authority figure, Dolores Umbridge.

He also seemed to be a man of principle, though a combination of a somewhat twisted moral compass and unquestionable loyalty to the Ministry of Magic clouded his judgement at times. During the Second Wizarding War, he did indeed work with capturing Muggle-Borns without protest, although this very well may have been more due to a combination of the Confundus Charm and him believing Muggle-Borns to be a dangerous threat to the Wizarding Community rather than siding with the Death Eaters willingly. Apparently, he was under the impression that the Ministry and its administration was the very defenition of wizarding law, and thus they were completely infallible, leading him to take orders without questioning them.

He also did not know fear, or at least did not show it when facing what he believed to be a genuine threat to his superiors. Indeed, although he was backed up by three other Ministry Officals when they attempted to arrest Albus Dumbledore, he was the first to step forward and fearlessly making himself ready to challenge the renowned wizard, and shortly afterwards, did not hasitate to run down the stairs of the Headmaster Tower when he believed Dumbledore had escaped through the entrance of the Office, while the mere precence of Dumbledore was enough to make several Death Eaters flee in fear during the Battle of the Department of Mysteries. This, as well as the fact that Fudge did not attempt to stop him from almost challenge Dumbledore single-handedly, (before Dumbledore's comment made him react with suprise and confusement and he stopped with his hand half-way to his wand all by himself), which speaks for exactly how much confidence both he and his fellow Ministry Officals have in his abilities. Although he seems to be a essentially good person, seen that he voluntarily went into a profession where he is working to fight the Dark Arts and protect the rest of the Wizadkind against the said danger, he appear to is blinded by his loyalty to the Ministry, making him a great soldier, but not a hero, or even siding with the heroes, unless he works for them and they tell him to.

Physical appearance

Dawlish was described as looking very capable and self-assured, a "tough-looking wizard" with "very short, wiry" grey hair. Despite his somewhat formidable appearance, any appearance or mention of him usually involves him being hexed, usually due to a combination of far superior opponents and sheer bad luck.

Magical abilities and skills

Magical Mastery: John Dawlish is a very powerful and clever wizard who had obvious talent and expertise in a number of different branches of magic, considering that, as an Auror, he had a high level of skill and knowledge in at least seven fields of magic, and may also have taken even more than those five subjects to his N.E.W.T-exams when graduating from Hogwarts. It is also possible like his many accidents when jinxed and cursed had rendered him a certain level of magical resistance, as he was the first to come around after being struck by a spell cast by Albus Dumbledore himself.

Intelligence: It is reasonably to assume that Dawlish is highly intelligent and knowledgeable in the theory of many magical disciplines, since the final exams at Hogwarts has a theoretical part and he got top grades in all subjects he took, something even Hermione Granger was unable to do. (Although the number of N.E.W.T-exams he took is not known).

Martial magic:Albus Dumbledore complimented Dawlish on his abilities as an Auror, saying that the man got "Outstanding" in all of his N.E.W.T exams, and so it was probable that Dawlish possessed skill when it came to duelling and spellwork. However, it was seen that he was able to be effortlessly defeated by wizards more powerful than himself, as demonstrated during the Ministry's attempt to arrest Dumbledore. Despite having Cornelius Fudge, Dolores Umbridge, and Kingsley Shacklebolt to back him up (though Shacklebolt was actually an ally of Dumbledore's and it is unknown if he would have been much help), Dawlish was still defeated by Dumbledore's magic. He was also (apparently) knocked out by Rubeus Hagrid and, later, Augusta Longbottom, which caused enough damage to have him sent to St. Mungo's Hospital. He was also defeated by Dirk Cresswell, who attributes his escape to another wizard or witch Confunding Dawlish beforehand.

Etymology

The name "John" is the English form of Iohannes, the Latin form of the Greek name Ιωαννης (Ioannes), itself derived from the Hebrew name יוֹחָנָן (Yochanan) meaning "Yahweh is gracious".

"Dawlish" is the name of a seaside town in Devon. It's name comes from a nearby stream, once called "Deawlisc", meaning "devil water".

Notes and references

↑Albus Dumbledore says in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix - Chapter 27 (The Centaur and the Sneak) that he "[seemed] to remember that [Dawlish] achieved 'Outstanding' in all [his] NEWTs". This means that Dawlish sat his NEWTs no earlier than the 1981-1982 school year (as Albus Dumbledore was born in the summer of 1881). Also, in April of 1996, Dawlish had to be 21 or up, as he was a fully fledged Auror [graduated from Hogwarts at age 17 and Auror training takes a further three years, as revealed in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix - Chapter 29 (Careers Advice)].

↑As Dawlish wasn´t imprisoned in Azkaban by the Muggle-born registration commission in 1997, it is possible that he isn´t Muggle-born.

↑In Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix - Chapter 29 (Careers Advice), Minerva McGonagall establishes that Aurors require a minimum of five N.E.W.T.s in order to be elegible for training to join the Auror Office.